Deferred Retirements

As the job market continues to be influenced by the stock market, one issue I haven’t heard much about is the number of expected job openings that are vanishing because of deferred retirements.

Many faculty members time their retirements to stock-portfolio values; if the fund balances don’t hit their expected marks, retirements are deferred.

That has two effects on the job market. First, new openings do not materialize as expected. And second, institutions don’t have as much as money to make salary changes as they had anticipated. Full professors who retire generally are replaced by entry-level faculty members at much lower salaries, and the salary savings is used to help pay for other positions. A deferred retirement may, in fact, block two positions from being opened.

Are you hearing about a lot of senior professors delaying retirement?